Siding is the outer covering or cladding of a house meant to shed water and protect from the effects of weather. On a building that uses siding, it may act as a key element in the aesthetic beauty of the structure and directly influence its property value. Siding may be formed of horizontal or vertical boards, shingles, or sheet materials. In all four cases, avoiding wind and rain infiltration through the joints is a major challenge, met by overlapping, by covering or sealing the joint, or by creating an interlocking joint such, as a tongue-and-groove. Since building materials expand and contract with changing temperature and humidity, it is not practical to make rigid joints between the siding elements.
Siding may be made of wood, metal, plastic (vinyl), cement, or composite materials. It may be attached directly to the building structure (studs in the ease of wood construction), or to an intermediate layer of horizontal planks called sheathing.
In the housing industry, teams of two installers generally apply siding to a house or other building. This allows each member of the team to measure the proper overlap of siding and then attach the siding to the side of the home. Generally, the length of the siding prevents one person from performing the job alone. If one person could properly attach the siding, productivity would increase.
Many tools exist to assist persons in installing siding on houses. One such tool is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,434,853. This tool is a siding application tool that includes an overlap portion having upper and lower ends, an L-shaped hook portion that forms a generally right-angle hook with the upper end of the overlap portion, an L-shaped retainer portion that forms a generally right-angle retainer with lire lower end of the overlap portion, and a plate member that extends from the L-shaped retainer portion that is generally perpendicular to the plane of the overlap portion. The L-shaped hook portion includes an upper bearing surface, and the L-shaped retainer portion includes a lower hearing surface. The upper and lower hearing surfaces are generally parallel with the plate member.
Another siding installation tool is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,705,021. The tool includes a body having a handle said a pair of vertically spaced-apart seat assemblies that define a seat distance there between. The lower seat assembly is adapted to engage the lower portion of a previously installed siding piece, and the upper seat assembly is adapted to support the lower portion of a siding piece to be installed at the determined reveal distance relative to the previously installed siding piece. The reveal distance is at least substantially defined, by the seat distance. In some embodiments, the tool enables two or more installers to with one hand properly hold and provide for level alignment of the piece of lap siding to be installed, while at the same time enabling the installer's to mechanically fasten the same with the other hand. In some embodiments, the tool is adjustable to accommodate a range of reveal sizes.
A portion of a face 110 of a building is shown in FIG. 1 with lap siding installed thereupon. As shown, three pieces of lap siding am at least partially shown and generally indicated at 114, 116 and 118. Each piece of Ian siding includes a bottom edge, or downwardly oriented surface, 120 and a face 122. The faces 122 include an exposed portion 124 and an occluded portion 126, which is covered, or overlapped, by the piece of lap siding installed above it. It should be understood that the top-most piece of lap siding installed on face 110 may not have an occluded portion or that occluded portion 126 may be formed, by a piece of molding or trim, as opposed to another piece of lap siding. The distance between adjacent edges 120 is referred to as the “reveal” or “reveal distance” 128 of the lap siding and corresponds to the generally vertical length of the exposed portions 124 of the pieces of lap siding. The dimensions of the reveal, may vary, with four, five, six, seven and eight inch reveals being common. Typically, each piece of lap siding is at least four feet in length, and lap siding is often at least six, eight, ten, twelve or more feet in length. Lap siding may be formed of any suitable material, including wood, composites, metal, vinyl, and the like. It should be understood that the length, height, reveal, mid materials of construction of the lap siding may vary and that the scope of the present invention, should not be limited to a particular range of values for these variables. Instead, a lap siding tool constructed according to the present invention may be sized to accommodate any particular type of lap siding. Although several Cools are available to assist in the installation of siding, there remains a need for an improved siding installation tool that can measure the position of the siding arid can assist the worker in the installation of the siding.